Detecting Thermal Hall in an Insulating Néel Antiferromagnet

Topological magnons have attracted the interest of many scientists thanks to their great potential in developing the field of spintronics. Two experimental measurements that have proved to be reliable in the search for topological magnon candidates are magnon thermal Hall and Inelastic Neutron Scattering (INS). Magnon thermal Hall, however, is preferred over INS in exploring a wide range of materials given its lower cost and availability. To date, most of the topological magnon candidates are ferromagnets such as Lu₂V₂O₇ and Cu (1,3 bdc). In both materials, a magnon thermal Hall effect was observed and was attributed to Dzyaloshinskii Moriya (DM) interaction^1,2. In our talk, we report the first thermal Hall data detected on an insulating antiferromagnet in MnPS₃ and MnPSe₃ below their Néel temperatures and discuss their potential as topological magnon materials.

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(2) Hirschberger, M.; Chisnell, R.; Lee, Y. S.; Ong, N. P. Thermal Hall Effect of Spin Excitations in a Kagome Magnet. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2015, 115 (10), 106603. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.106603.